Dark Cloud Shadow On Ground

[Lep 0]

I had just installed the latest CumulusX and it seems to cast dark shadows on the ground, which appears too sharp and too distinct in outline, rather unnatural. Is there a way to turn off those shadows? Alternatively, is there a way to temporarily deactivate CumulusX when I'm not flying glider?

Also, there seems to be only a few thermals here and there. Very few around ridges, where I would expect them. In the real world, how does one find these invicible thermals?

[B21 19]

re shadows, here's a reply from Peter Luerkens to another post:

For a quick fix, simply disable "Aircraft casts shadow on ground" in Options/Settings/Display, tab aircraft. Though it will also remove your aircrafts shadow, this is most of the time invisible from the cockpit view anyway. As CumulusX! and its the thermal cloud system works now independently from FSX thermal system, you will not see any clue of thermals, if you delete the clouds models.

Actually the shadows are not by me but are a builtin feature of FSX for all AI objects unles you disable them explicitly in the 3D model file. Unfortunately, as many other flaws in FSX, the implementation is quite imperfect as anybody can see.

re the ridgelift and thermals - give it a little bit of time, it takes getting used to but Cx is doing a pretty good job of realistic placement of both. If you're new to gliding, try ridgelift first - set the wind to maybe 17 knots perpendicular to any ridge, eg those around Mifflin, PA.

B21

[Peter Lürkens 30]

Well said.

best regards, Peter

[Lep 0]

Thanks, fellows.

Tried and now it all works fine. Also did a flight at Mifflin as suggested. Nice ridges !

Lep

[Bulau 0]

I recently flew a couple of tasks in desert areas, one around Heath Canyon, Texas, and other Minden, Nevada. I noticed that the CumulusX! clouds do not cast any shadows on the ground in those areas.

[Peter Lürkens 30]

I recently flew a couple of tasks in desert areas, one around Heath Canyon, Texas, and other Minden, Nevada. I noticed that the CumulusX! clouds do not cast any shadows on the ground in those areas.

That's correct. FSX shadows are flat pancakes, rendered as 3D objects in the landspcape, rather than volumetric lighting effects. There is a reference point where the ground elevation is taken for the position of the pancake, and there the pancake is shown, regardless of the shape of the ground. As long as the ground is flat then everything's fine.

But in mountain areas with steep slopes the pancakes jutt out of the hills like black platforms, which looks horrible. Therefore I decided not to show shadows in areas over 500 m MSL or in sloped areas.

Cheers,

Peter